To George Bentham1    20 February 1862

Melbourne bot. Garden

20/2/62

My dear Mr Bentham

The mail, due this month from Europe, has not arrived, so that I have but occasion to adress you on few subjects. I have forwarded under special care of the Captain pr Great Britain, freight paid, 9 parcels with Thalamiflorae in a sealed box: vize:

Droseraceae 1 fascicle

Frankeniaceae 1,

Pittosporea (Bursaria 1, Hymenosp. Rhytidosp & Sollya 1, Citriobatus & Ixiosp 1 — Billardiera 1 — Marianthus 1 Cheiranthera 1 — Pittosporum 2)2 = 7. Total 9.

The Great Britain left end of January. The Young Australia with 2[8]3 fascicles about a month before. I have finished the vol on the Thalamifl of Victoria, 250 pag, 20 plat.4 —; the work has left me meanwhile not much time in getting collections & notes ready for you; but I feel somewhat freer now and when my annual report is issued5 and the medical examinations at the University are passed, I can devote my time steadily to my assistantship in your work.

I am desirous to direct your attention to Dryanders Chloris (flor.) Nov. Holl. in Koenigs & Sims annals.6 It contains some notes of importance, for instance that on the occurence of Eucal. obliqua in V.D.L. Dryander is however not always correct in the authors he quotes with the names of plants.

I intend to work up the Sapindaceae some early day & send you then the whole collection. Could you kindly send me the proof sheets of your Genera? It would be in the instance of Sapindaceae important, as we have to accept Blumes Genera7 with caution & Cambessedes8 are too few for the present day after the discovery of so much novelty[.] I hope you will kindly bear in mind, that no synonym should be quoted, unless it were established by a diagnosis My manuscripts at Kew has to be used with some caution, as you will observe that my views on some points became altered & the descriptions augmented or corrected.9

I have never seen ripe fruit of Stylobasium. Is it sapindaceaous?

I do not know whether I explained, that since my working up some fascicles of Thalamiflorae, I received from different parts of Australia additions, not touched upon yet in either the plants of Victoria or the Fragmenta. These I have put along with the species with which I considered them identical, without however having subjected them to a strict examination. You will observe, that the plants of Victoria contain twice the number of Thalamifl. than the flora Tasm., since I reduce Dr Hooker's 130 to 97.

Ever very regardfully

yours

Ferd. Mueller.

 

By a clerical error in the adress this letter was returned to me. So I forward it again

12/6/62.

 

Ferd Mueller

 

Billardiera

Bursaria

Cheiranthera

Citriobatus

Droseraceae

Eucalyptus obliqua

Frankeniaceae

Hymenosporum

Ixiosporum

Marianthus

Pittosporea

Pittosporum

Rhytidosperma

Sapindaceae

Sollya

Stylobasium

Thalamiflorae

 
 
1
MS black-edged; M's sister Bertha died on 7 September 1861.
2
Abbreviated names are Hymenosporum, Rhytidosperma,and Ixiosporum.
3
8 appears to have been written over either 9 or 7. RB MSS M44, Notebook recording despatch of plants for Bentham for Flora australiensis , Library, Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne, lists 28 fascicles sent by Young Australia on 26 December 1861.
4
B62.03.03.
5
B62.03.01.
6
Dryander (1806).
7
Blume published almost all of his many Sapindaceae in Blume (1825-6) or in Blume (1835-49).
8
Cambessedes (1829).
9
MSS not found.

Please cite as “FVM-62-02-20c,” in Correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller, edited by R.W. Home, Thomas A. Darragh, A.M. Lucas, Sara Maroske, D.M. Sinkora†, J.H. Voigt† and Monika Wells accessed on 20 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/62-02-20c